Hashiguchi Goyô (1880-1921)
"Modernizing Utamaro"

Two famous names among Japanese printmakers have long been closely associated: the independent shin hanga master Hashiguchi Goyô
(橋口五葉) and the ukiyo-e master Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806). In at
least one respect it is somewhat surprising to compare these two artists. Utamaro left behind an extraordinary legacy of around 2,000
single-sheet print designs. Although his subject matter was varied, he is best known as the preeminent artist of the genre called bijinga ("pictures of beautiful women"), and scores of these print designs qualify as some of the most beautiful images of women ever
created. Goyô, in contrast, completed a mere 13 woodblock printed designs during his brief life (he died prematurely from complications
of influenza and meningitis). Otherwise, there was only one other nearly finished print for which key block proofs had been made while he was
still alive, although Goyô did not live long enough to approve the colors. Among his many surviving drawings, 10 were issued posthumously
in woodblock print editions. Given the exceptionally small production of Goyô's prints, how then can we speak of these two artists in
the same breadth?

GoyôBeauty applying makeup (1918)

Utamaro
Beauty applying makeup (c. mid-1790s)

Goyô was an independent shin hanga artist, acting as his own block publisher (hanmoto) and supervising all aspects of his print
production based on his original drawings. He was trained initially as a painter in the Kanô-school manner and then later in the
western-style oil painting at the Tokyo Art School, where he graduated in 1905. Goyô had a long-standing and serious interest in
traditional Japanese printmaking (ukiyo-e) years before he designed his first woodblock print. As early as 1911 he had already begun
studying, collecting, and writing about ukiyo-e. In 1914-15 Goyô published a series of three articles for Bijutsu shinpô
("Art News"): Hiroshige no hanga ("Woodblock prints of Hiroshige"), Nishiki-e no zenki ("The most productive
period of brocade prints"), and Utamaro no e ni tsuite ("On the pictures of Utamaro"). For several more years he continued
with such scholarship, writing more about Hiroshige, adding a study on Harunobu, and contributing various sections on ukiyo-e for the
twelve-volume series Ukiyo fûzoku nishiki-e ("Floating world manners and brocade prints"). He was producing large
numbers of sketches as well as more finished drawings, and in 1916-17 he supervised woodblock printed reproductions of ukiyo-e, which
refined his knowledge of the craft of printmaking. This expertise would be evident in his own original and superbly made prints.

Goyô's first original print was produced in October 1915 in collaboration with the great shin hanga publisher Watanabe
Shôzaburô — it would be Goyô's only work supervised by Watanabe, although one other print, a landscape depicting
Mount Ibuki issued in January 1920, was distributed by Watanabe in 100 impressions to an art collector's club. His second print, a landscape
with figures titled "Rain at Yabakei," was issued in March 1918. The design shown above left was Goyô's second bijinga print, produced independently and made under his direct supervision in April 1918 (the carving
was done by Takano Shichinosuke and Koike Masazô, the printing at least partly by Maeda Kentarô). It is untitled, but is known
variously under such descriptive labels as "Woman applying powder" or "Woman making up." The craftsmanship is superb,
with beautifully selected and printed colors, metallic overprinting on the mirror case and ring, mica overlaid on the background, embossing of
the flowers , delicate highlights on the skin, and gradation printing on the robe patterned with what are called kanoko ('fawn spots,"
one of the most popular Edo-period motifs used in shaped-resist textile dyeing called shibori). It is also a large design, measuring about the
size of a traditional double-ôban single sheet (50 x 37 cm). Goyô's beauty has been considered by many critics to epitomize the
modern woman of the Taishô period (1912-1926). So where do we find Utamaro in Goyô's design?

The design by Utamaro (above right) is one of the masterpieces of ukiyo-e, published by Iseya Magobei circa mid-1790s. The abridgement of the
figure and the rear view, coupled with the reflection of the face in a large dressing mirror printed with dark mica, make this one of the most
memorable images of the entire ukiyo-e school. If we consider the similarities between these two designs, we can see that each face is turned
slightly in the conventional 3/4 view used since the inception of ukiyo-e. The two beauties perform the same task, the application of body makeup
to the neck and shoulders, although a brush is used in the Goyô design, fingers in Utamaro's. Each design features a beautiful woman's
face, stylish robes, and elegantly manicured coiffures. Overall these two designs are front and back views of quite similar compositions. It is
very likely that Goyô, intimately familiar as he was with Utamaro's oeuvre, assimilated such features from this or other related designs
by the earlier master.

The differences between these two masterpieces are, however, just as important as their similarities. Although both portraits share in a
voyeuristic and eroticized depiction of women during their private moments, Goyô relied on an explicit frontal sensuality, whereas
Utamaro used as his focus the eroticism of the exposed nape of the neck (an erogenous zone for the Japanese that was featured in countless
ukiyo-e prints). The details in the two compositions are, of course, different throughout, including textile patterns (Utamaro's beauty wears
a summer robe with a popular 'star fish' pattern), hair styles, and mirror forms. Two important features exist only in Goyô's composition:
the greater naturalistic volume of the drawing and the accurate physiognomy.

With respect to volumetric drawing, the influence of western perspective, foreshortening, and three-dimensional space was a novelty during Utamaro's
day, only partly understood and applied, whereas by the Taishô period these principles of drawing were well known in Japan (indeed, they
were taught in established Japanese art schools, including Goyô's alma mater). Goyô's beauty possesses more weight and substance
than Utamaro's, although Goyô's translation of three-dimensional volume is subdued, even compared to many of his own naturalistic
pencil drawings. Her left hand is drawn more "in the round" than its counterpart in the Utamaro portrait, and there are delicate
highlights of pink shading on her skin to suggest volume. Goyô's beauty seems less delicate, perhaps even more human, although some critics
discern a certain aloofness in Goyô's women. As for the differences in the drawing of physiognomy, Utamaro's women were typologized —
they were not actual portraits but idealized symbols for the beauties of his day (see also
Utamaro and the Physiognomists). Goyô's portrait, in contrast,
was an actual likeness — his model truly had a face like the one we see in the print.